A hard look at tough decisions.

Day 754, 17:49 • Published in South Africa USA • by George Barker

Ines Schumacher, president of South Africa, has written a post defending her decision to betray Australia as the fruit of pragmatism: in order to protect South Africa from a PTO, she decided to trade South African territory to Brazil, giving Brazil a platform to attack Australia -- heretofore an ally of South Africa.

Now, dressing up cowardice and betrayal as a "tough decision" makes for nice propaganda to South Africans, who want to hear that stuff, but nobody else is fooled. The recent leadership has turned South Africa into a lap dog, because after this, after ratting out the PTO of Brazil that would have left South Africa a respected member of the world community, no one trusts you -- no one trusts Ines in particular, or South Africa in general -- so begging Brazil and Indonesia, which PTOed South Africa, wiped it off the map, and then were generous enough to sell back some of its regions, begging these very same countries to "help" you, and selling out those few countries who felt any loyalty to South Africa in the process, is the only road Ines sees available. The toll for travelling that road is whatever dignity, respect, and above all, trust from other countries, South Africa had left.

Ines has been the de facto ruler of South Africa for about six months. Has South Africa made any progress in that time? You're back on the map -- great job! But so are Canada, and Spain, and they did it without sacrificing their self respect, or the respect of anyone else. You continue trying to manufacture a population boom -- a laudable thing. But why would anyone want to play a game where they live in a country that hides in a corner of the world refusing to do anything, until it is forced -- and then its decision is to sell out its allies? Is that the sort of game you, South African reader, would want to play? It seems to suit Ines fine, but in order to grow your country you need a lot more than people like Ines. And above all -- and this is the signature sign of failure and stagnation -- your leadership continues to see no option for survival except to make sordid deals with the very countries that wiped you out and now occupy your regions.

I don't think South Africa is making any progress at all. Had you made the really "tough decisions," had you chosen to fight with the Polish PTO, work with other countries to recover your regions via RW, you would have also been back on the map now -- but you wouldn't be under the thumb of Brazil and Indonesia, wouldn't be required to sell out your allies, would have your dignity, would be a nation native South Africans could join and be proud of, and have an incentive to keep playing for. That isn't the South Africa you have now, and you can thank Ines, and her record of making the same types of "tough decisions," for that.

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OK, this argument keeps coming up, so I'll word my response to it more clearly than I did above.

Defence of Ines: "We did what we did to try and protect this country from a PTO, it may not have been the best choice for our allies but it was the best option we had. Every country puts themselves before their allies."

This is short term, reactive thinking. You don't seem to understand this: This "deal" has changed the way South Africa is perceived. Forever. Just as the UK did with their deal. Had you gone down fighting (if that even happened), you would have had respect, and the good will of other nations. What you have now is nothing. Brazil and Indonesia will "help" you, as Brazil did here, as long as you are willing to obey them. This is exactly the situation the UK is in now. They are locked in to one alliance, because no one else wants anything to do with them. They aren't even a sovereign nation any longer; they simply click the attack button whenever Hungary, Russia, and Indonesia tell them to click it. Similarly, you are now a "sovereign" nation to the extent that Brazil and Indonesia allow you to be one -- no further. Your security rests entirely in their hands, because no one else will help you, because no one else trusts you. This was the path you were set on months ago, when Ines decided to make the deal to give you one lousy region in exchange for fealty to Brazil. It's the path you're still on, and now there's no way off of it.

The saddest part of all is that the PTO could still succeed, and you'll have further discredited yourselves in exchange for nothing at all.